At least 17 civilians were killed in a Russian strike on a market in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, the same day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kiev, announcing additional aid from billion dollars to the Ukrainians to whom the United States will supply, for the first time, depleted uranium ammunition.
“Progress on the ongoing (Ukrainian army) counter-offensive has accelerated in recent weeks and this new aid will help give it new momentum,” Blinken said on his fourth visit to Ukraine. since the beginning, in February 2022, of the Russian invasion.
In Washington, the Pentagon revealed at the same time that 120 mm ammunition containing depleted uranium effective against tanks and other armored vehicles was going to be delivered to the Ukrainians. These are able to pierce armor but are controversial because of the toxic risks for the military and populations.
“American aid is not charity. Today, thanks to our partners, Ukraine is holding back Russian aggression. We will never call for the deployment of American troops in Ukraine,” he said. to tell Mr. Blinken his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kouleba.
The Kremlin, for its part, criticized the United States for “keeping Ukraine in a state of war”.
The deadly shelling of a market in Kostiantynivka, a town in the Donetsk region, took place hours after Mr Blinken arrived in kyiv.
CCTV footage shows a quiet shopping alley when suddenly the whistle of a projectile is heard, followed by a very loud explosion.
A survivor testified to AFP about the violence of the impact, which occurred at a time when the streets were very busy. “Everything was destroyed” and “the girls who were selling all died,” he said.
Rescuers searched the debris and transported some injured people for treatment in front of charred vehicles and stalls.
The Ukrainian government reported 17 people killed, including a child, and 32 injured.
Kostiantynivka, which had almost 70,000 inhabitants before the Russian offensive launched in early 2022, is about thirty kilometers from Bakhmout, the scene of a bloody battle with Russian troops for more than a year.
“The Russian terrorists deliberately targeted the market” when no military target was nearby, accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It is a “despicable attack”, denounced a United Nations official, it “underlines the need to continue to support the Ukrainian people in the defense of their territory”, reacted the White House.
“Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes”, commented a spokesperson for the European Union, while, for Berlin, it is “an attack against international law and humanity” .
Despite multiple bombings of civilian sites in Ukraine causing many casualties, Moscow claims to systematically target and destroy military targets.
Early in the morning, a Russian explosive drone had already killed one in the Odessa region (southwest), where port infrastructure necessary for wheat exports is regularly hit.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive which began in June is proving difficult, but the Ukrainian military hopes to be close to a breakthrough, since the capture of the village Robotyné at the end of August, which could open the way to the south and in particular the Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014 by Moscow.
Russia has never acknowledged having ceded this locality.
During his train journey to Kiev, Mr. Blinken also met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, also on the move in Ukraine and who delivered a speech to the Ukrainian Parliament in the morning.
The US official thanked Ms Frederiksen “for Denmark’s leadership” regarding her decision, made public two weeks ago along with that of the Netherlands, to supply F-16 fighters to Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky also expressed his “appreciation” to him.
At the same time, Ukrainian parliamentarians endorsed the unprecedented appointment of a Crimean Tatar, Roustem Oumerov, to the post of Defense Minister.
“I will do everything possible and impossible for the victory of Ukraine, when we have liberated every centimeter of our country”, promised shortly after his appointment Mr. Oumerov who, at 41, will have the heavy burden of negotiating Western arms deliveries.
06/09/2023 22:02:33 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
